Sneaking bikes into the new BL exhibition

The British Library's latest exhibition, Points of View, has just started to some excellent reviews. The fascinating collection of 19th-century photos at St Pancras is free, runs until 7 March, and is conveniently visitable by bike.

A small part of the exhibition is a series of twenty-odd pictures of London sights in the 1870s compared with the identical views today. It's on an easily missable black pillar with a video display, towards the end of the end of the exhibition on the left.

The two pictures on the right are an example: the celebrated (and bike-friendly) George Inn in Southwark.

All the series is being featured on the Points of View exhibition blog, starting with the George.


The 'now' pictures were all taken by me this summer. The ideal way to do it was by bike, of course. It was therefore a fine excuse for being paid for a few days' leisurely cycling round London in the sun, taking snaps, and stopping to research each location thoroughly. (This isn't typical of working at the British Library; it's not usually that hectic.)

The 1870s pictures, sadly, don't feature any velocipede or 'penny-farthing' riders. So I did my best to smuggle cyclists into the 'now' pictures wherever possible.

No doubt there was a debate in the 1870s between the 'real' cyclists (normal, everyday, comfy clothing such as frock coat, high collar and top hat; sensible luggage carrier such as a Gladstone bag) and the sports cyclists (lightweight penny-farthings weighing only a few stone; Devonshire serge jacket in hi-vis dark green, knickerbockers, Stanley helmet with small peaks and Cambridge grey stockings - the uniform specified for the founding members of the Cycle Touring Club).

As with the pictures, some things change, some things stay the same. As my mum says sagely, it's like everything else.

London old and new: bikes are the difference

Propaganda, like a lot of TV presenters I expect, is more effective the less clever it is. So I've always rather liked the simple ploy of Sustrans's books: every single picture has a cyclist in it somewhere. The message is hardly subliminal, but it works: bikes are the right answer for everything.

I had this in mind last week. I was breezing around town taking a pictures for work of various London spots. They'd all been featured in an 1870s photo album recording the look of London's streets and buildings. (The entire album is on the British Library website.)

I was taking exactly the same views from the same spot, to show how things had changed, or not. It involved a few hours visiting around 25-30 places each for 15 minutes or so, all within a two-mile radius or so.


Yet another of those things impossible, or horribly cumbersome, by any other form of transport: a parking nightmare by car, a slow logistical slog by bus or tube, ludicrously expensive by taxi, way too far to walk.

But on a bike it was just a delightful way to spend a couple of half-days, nosing round back streets and lanes in the city that have been unchanged for over a century in their non-provision of bike parking.


The pictures, new and old, will feature on the blog of the next big British Library exhibition, the photographic blockbuster Points of View this winter. The three examples here are:
St John's Gate, Clerkenwell (top; see the 1870s version);
Canonbury Tower, Islington (bottom; see the 1870s version); and
Great St Helen's, off Bishopsgate (middle; see the 1870s version).

And, as you can see, I've done the Sustrans thing, and smuggled in cyclists wherever I could. Oh, very subtle. Maybe I have a career in propaganda. Or at least as a TV presenter.

Private view, public shambles: William St bike lane

Sunny summer evenings roaming London on a bike are bliss. What's all this rubbish about it being expensive? Cultivate a few artistic acquaintances with ambitions to stage an exhibition, and thanks to London's thriving industry in Private Views, you'll never pay for a glass of wine or Dorito again.

We were at just such a vernissage last night (I only learnt that word the other day, so I have to use it all the time now). It was ¡Cuba libre!, a vibrant exhibition of photos from the country, in the flag-festooned embassy quarter of Belgrave Square. Several photos in the display include bikes, including my favourite pic: this rallying-cry with a picture of Che.

Of course, Ernesto himself was more of a motorbike man, but I'm sure when he did get in the saddle he was all for the ideals of real cycling. As were the attendees: Belgrave Square's upmarket railings were bristling with bikes.


And en route, going down William St off posh Knightsbridge, was more free entertainment: another of those strange criss-crossing bike lanes that some London boroughs like so much. (Google Street View shows it nicely.)

Evidently northbound bikes, going with the one-way traffic, are expected to swoop across to the right-hand side. Here they rub shoulders, panniers and pedals with the southbound bikes, who are squeezed into a vertical limbo dance between the door-opening zone of parked cars on their left and the oncoming traffic - and cyclists - immediately on their right. It looks harmless in theory (top) but in practice (bottom) you'll be ready for a couple of defibrillating daiquiris at your Private View afterwards.

Framed

Too busy hurtling round London between work, rehearsals, pubs etc to think up any more bad jokes. Or even to rail about last Tuesday's incident in Peckham, yet another female cyclist crushed under a left-turning lorry.

So here's an agreeable picture that surfaced after a recent Southwark Cyclists ride. (Don't know who took it; let me know if you do.)

Wild about free exhibitions

London's full of excellent free stuff, and usually the best way to enjoy it is by bike. One of our favourite freebies at the moment is Wild Poland, an outdoor exhibition of fabulous wildlife photos along the riverside at Gabriel's Wharf (between the South Bank and the Oxo Tower). Any exhibition you can cycle through is worth a detour and you can go at any hour of day or night (as I did early this morning on the way into work). It's on until 7 June.

A few yards downriver in said Oxo Tower is the the.gallery, which runs free exhibs too. The current one (until 31 May) features classic 1970s rock album covers by Pink Floyd et al - yes, including the 'burning man handshake' on Wish You Were Here and the prism on Dark Side of the Moon. Much of it, frankly, looks a bit lame and airbrushed now we all know someone who can Photoshop the boss's head seamlessly onto a picture of Michelangelo's David in their coffee break; Genesis's Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is one of the few that holds its own.

No bikes in this exhibition, though. You'll have to lock up just outside, and neither is there a mention inside of Pink Floyd's whimsical Syd Barrett song Bike. A recluse in his later years, Barrett was nevertheless a Real Cyclist: both the bicycle of his song, and his own bike, had a basket and bell, and - like many in Cambridge, England's cyclingest city - he had no need for a helmet. But then it could be pointed out that Syd had never taken much care of his head's contents.

You're always wining

I've often bought a bottle of wine just because it had a bike on the label. (Another common reason is because it's cheap.)

One Flickr user (presumably called Paul Dunn) has put up his collection of photos featuring wine bottles that feature bikes: an impressive two-and-a-half dozen. Must have been a good weekend.

Wine and bikes is an excellent combination. There's even a Flickr group dedicated to the subject (to which I see a name very familiar to CTC members is an enthusiastic contributor).

But, obviously, you shouldn't drink and cycle. It could be dangerous. Stop, pull over to the side of the road, drink the wine, replace it safely in your pannier, and then proceed.

Proceedings in camera

If you want to take video while riding there are three options: helmet camera; bike-mounted bracket; or you steer with one hand and film with the other.

The first two can be bought or made. But the third is easier and more artistically satisfying, as you can pan and tilt, plus you get interesting action shots of the sky when you fall off.

All new technology, you might think, this snapping-from-the-saddle business. Not so. I was intrigued to find this advert on the British Library website's Online Gallery today. It is, the ad says, 'AN IDEAL MACHINE For those Gentlemen who wish to combine Photography with Cycling'. (You can read a description or see a high-res zoomable image.)

Dating from 1888, it's a special tricycle from the Crypto Cycle Company that comes with a built-in rig for taking photographs while out riding. (Presumably not actually while in motion?)

A curious feature of the trike is that it's compressible to 26 inches width - perhaps they suffered from narrow cycle lanes then, too. As if out of Wacky Races, the bottom line of the ad excitingly informs you that the bike is 'supplied with or without Crypto Power'.

The price, without camera, is 22 guineas. For young readers, that's just over £23 - equivalent then to several month's wages for an artisan. (Bikes of the late Victorian and Edwardian era probably felt about as expensive as cars to do for us today. There were thriving second-hand markets.)

Me, I'm working on the bike-mounted-bracket solution...